May 24, 2026
Shell shock in the comments
Artificial egg hatched 26 healthy chickens
Lab-made egg hatches 26 chicks and the internet immediately screams “Jurassic Park”
TLDR: Colossal says its artificial egg hatched 26 healthy chickens, a step toward someday incubating birds that resemble extinct species like the dodo. Commenters instantly turned it into a drama fest, joking about Jurassic Park, dystopian fiction, and whether this is real science or slick company hype.
A biotech company says its artificial egg has hatched 26 healthy chickens, and instead of a polite golf clap, the internet delivered a full-on comment-section soap opera. Colossal Biosciences wants this silicone egg setup to help it one day bring back giant extinct birds like the dodo and the moa. In plain English: real hens still do the early part, but scientists move the developing egg into a man-made shell that lets air in and keeps moisture where it belongs. Cute science miracle, right? Well, the crowd was not ready to just coo at the chicks.
The strongest reaction was a mix of "this sounds fake," "this sounds dystopian," and "who exactly is paying for this?" One commenter dropped the ultimate chaos grenade — “Have we already forgotten about chaos theory?” — instantly turning the whole story into a Jurassic Park meme. Another said it felt like the National Enquirer was back from the dead, while someone else went full literary panic and compared it to the opening of Brave New World. That’s not skepticism; that’s a sci-fi book club with trust issues.
Then came the serious side-eye. People questioned why a company, not a university lab, is leading this, and whether the announcement is more PR than proof. The biggest drama point: Colossal celebrated 26 chicks but didn’t release the overall success rate or a peer-reviewed paper, which had commenters wondering if this was a breakthrough or just very polished startup theater. The chicks may be healthy, but the comments? Absolutely feral.
Key Points
- •Colossal Biosciences announced that its artificial egg system hatched 26 healthy chickens on May 19, 2026.
- •The system uses a semi-permeable silicone membrane inside a rigid support cup to replicate eggshell gas exchange while retaining moisture and blocking contaminants.
- •The design includes a clear observation window and is described as theoretically scalable across a wide range of egg sizes.
- •The article says earlier shell-free hatching methods often depended on supplemental oxygen, which can damage embryo DNA and has been associated with low hatch success.
- •In Colossal’s workflow, the artificial egg is used after natural fertilization and egg-laying, while any de-extinction-related genetic editing would need to occur at a much earlier developmental stage.